Refrigeration latch mechanism



April 1948. L. ANDERSON REFRIGERATION LATCH MECHANISM Filed July 31, 1944 2 SheetsSheet 1 1n 2 for L I 05d LAnderson W Q Q Wv Affornagg APTil 0, 1948- ANDERSON 0,

REFRIGERATION LATCH MECHANISM Filed July 31;, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v AKOYHGgE Patented Apr. 20, 1948 REFRIGERATION LATCH MECHANISM Lloyd L. Anderson, Grand Rapids, Mich, assignor to Winters & Crampton Corporation, Grandville, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application July 31, 1944, Serial No. 547,374

Claims. 1

This invention relates to a latch mechanism particularly adapted for use on refrigerator doors. Among the objects and purposes of the present invention is a production of simple, sturdy and durable construction of latch by means of which the effective closing and tight sealing of the door is better accomplished than heretofore, with a closing of the door by exertion of a light pressure and with an accomplishment of more effectively overcoming the gasket resistance which progressively increases as the door approaches its closed position l-D In "th'e' usual refrigerator door operation when a door nears its closed seal position, the compressible sealing gasket which is used on a refrigerator door adjacent its peripheral edges and which is compressed and flattened as the door is closed, develops a resistance against said flattening at a progressively increasing rate. For example with each one thirty-second inch of travel of the door inwardly and with the gasket more and more flattened with such inward movement, a progressively greater force is required tocompress and flatten the gasket.

In the usual construction of latch mechanisms heretofore used, the latch bolt mounted on the door which engages with a bolt keeper mounted on the refrigerator casing, is spring actuated, the spring having its heaviest force of exertion when the bolt engages the keeper and, as the bolt traverses the keeper usually by cam action tends to draw the door inwardly. The spring is extended during such movement of the bolt and the spring, force is progressively decreased with simultaneous development of a greater resistance on the part of'the gasket. I hus the spring becomes progressively weaker in the force which it exerts at the times that the force to be overcome exerted by the gasket is progressively increasing.

The present invention which I have produced has been found to give very satisfactory results by reason of the novel construction which has been developed, in largely overcoming the described defects of spring actuated latches with a long bolt roller movement in a direction which tends not only to engage the keeper but also to have a relative long drawing inward effect to draw the door inwardly toward closed position after the latch bolt has been released into its operating range of movement. Such drawing-in action of the bolt, particularly at the roller position after the keeper has been engaged, has been proven to produce an increasingly accelerated rate of action which satisfactorily overcomes the progressively increasing resistance of the gasket door seal. Furthermore, with the latch construction which I have devised, a relatively large tolerance can be provided in the mounting of the keeper on the door casing, so that extreme care is not required in the positioning of the keeper with relation to the latch, thereby facilitating manufacturing assembly on the refrigerator. Also a novel construction of latch has been provided in which the latch bolt is held in a cooked position when the door is open and may be released from such position with a small application of force. Furthermore should the latch bolt accident-ally or otherwise be released from its cocked position with the. door open and upon closing the door, the bolt strikes the keeper at its outer side, the novel construction which I have devised permits a ready yielding and a spring absorption of the shock of such striking without danger of strain or damage to the latch, keeper or their attachments respectively to the door and the refrigerator casing.

An understanding of the invention may be had from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary horizontal section illustrating the latch of my invention when'it is in a closed position engaging with a keeper therefor, the keeper being mounted upon the refrigerator casing and the latch upon the door.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the latch bolt.

Fig. 3 isa horizontal section with parts broken away and partly omitted to show diagrammatically the operation of the bolt and its movements from the cocked position to the position it occupies when the door is closed.

Fig. 4 is an under plan view of the latch which is mounted on the door, and

Fig. 5 is a vertical section on the plane of line 55 of Fig. 3 looking to the left.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawings.

In the present disclosure of the invention it is shown as semi-concealed within a door I, which has the usual'compressible gasket 2 at its inner side and around its peripheral edges to bear against surfaces at the top and bottom and at the vertical sides of the opening in a refrigerator casing, for effective sealing against loss of refrigeration when the door is closed. It is to be understood that while the latch structure is available for mounting within the body of the door and with only the operating handle therefor exposed at the outer side of the door, such latch structure is also with slight modifications in the mannet 9 re easing it, readily adaptable for mountv a a a ing on the outside of the door. At the front of the side of the refrigerator casing or body against which the vertical free edge portion of the door engages when the door is closed, a keeper is mounted comprising a supporting bracket 4 and the keeper proper, which includes a section screwed or otherwise secured to the bracket having a ledge 8 turned therefrom against which a roller on the bolt engages, inwardly from. which is a finger I providing an operating trigger against which the bolt engages when the door is closed to release the latch bolt from its cocked position. At the inner side of the door I the inner lining thereof has an opening at 9 for the passage of the keeper therethrough when the door is closed.

connected by an interposed cross portion 23 and has arms extending to the outer side of the shaft In the drawing (Fig. 1) a bracket 9 of metal I is provided within the bodyv of the door upon which the latch structure is mounted. The latch structure includes a housing of sheet metal, having spaced parallel sides III with outwardly turned flanges I I at one edge to be located against.

the bracket 9, said flanges being slotted for the passage of securing screws or the like (Fig. 4). The housing sides I ll adjacent one end thereof are integrally connected for a distance by a cross.

member l2. Said cross connecting member l2 (Fig. 3) extends from the inner ends of the sides ID for only a part of their length and is then cut away, as shown at l3 leaving inwardly turned flange portions l4 which extend from the adjacent edge of the part l2 for a distance; are then curved in the arc of a circle at I5 (Fig. 3) and extended in a section l6 which is of an arc shape, the center of curvature 01' which will be hereinafter set forth. Each flange section l6 lies approximately at right angles to the plane of the connecting portion I2 and is continued integrally in a cam bend at I I and therefrom substantially in a circular arc l8 of approximately 90 and terminating in the flange sections is which extend to the edges of the sides i0 where they bear against the'bracket 9.

Near-the inner end of the housing a rod is mounted and extends between and is secured to said sides Hi. It is about'a center coincident with the axis of said rod 20 that the arc of the sections it of the flanges described are struck.

The latch bolt (Fig. 2) is formed from a single piece of fiat metal and shaped to have two spaced parallel sides 2| connected at one side by spaced apart integral cross sections 22 and such bolt is mounted upon the pin 20 near one end thereof. At the opposite end the sides 2i of the bolt are continued in spaced arms 23 between which a roller 24 is mounted. The sides 2| are also longitudinally slotted to provide closed slots 25 at the positions shown in Fig. 2.

A flat bar 28 lies substantially midway between the sides IU of the housing described and is provided with a closed slot 21 adjacent what may be termed its inner end, the rod 20 passing through said slot. Near its opposite end a rod or shaft 28 extends therethrough and through the slots 25 in the sides 2| of the latch bolt. at its ends carrying rollers 29 which bear against the flange sections [4 I 6, l1 and I8 in different positions of the latch mechanism. Wear resisting bushings 30 are preferably used to extend through the slots 25, shaft 29 passing therethrough.

A rod 3| extends between and is secured at its ends to the sides IU of the housing near its outer corner portion on which a bell crank lever is mounted for rocking movement.- Such lever is made from sheet metal having spaced sides 3 29, said arms at their free ends being formed with curved flanges 94, each bearing against the shaft 22 and one lying at each side of the bar 26 (Fig. 5). A spring 29 as shown in Fig. 1 is located around the rod 2| and acts upon the bell crank lever to maintain the flanges 34 in engagement with the rod 29.

The bar 29 near the end through which shaft 29, passes is provided with shoulders, and a relatively heavy coiled compression spring 36 is located around the bar, one end bearing against said shoulders and the other against the rod 20.

The spring 38 under compression has a normal tendency to move bar 28 to the left (Figs. 1 and 3) and force the rollers 29 into engagement with the flanges at H and II in the open position of the latch, oragainst the curved flanges at 18 in the closed position.

The bracket 9 has an opening 31 therein adjacent the cross member 33 of the bell crank lever described. A pin 39 at its inner end engages against the outer side of the cross member or ledge 33 and passes through plates 39 one at the inner side and one at the outer side of the outer shell of the door, the plates 39 having guides 40 for the pin as shown in Fig. 1. A handle 4| for manual operation is pivotally mounted at 42 on suitable bracket arms 43 extending from the outer plate 39 and the rod 38 bears at its outer end against a bearing plate 44 forming a part of the handle, so that on an outward pull at the free end of the handle and a rotation in a counter-clockwise direction about the pin 42 (Fig. 1)

' pin 98 is moving longitudinally inward to turn the bell crank lever counter-clockwise, moving the spring carrying bar 26 longitudinally with a compression of spring 36. A spring 45 around the pivot pin 42 for the handle acts to normally return the handle to its inner position shown in Fig. 1 after it has been pulled outwardly. A

housing 46 of sheet metal to cover the rod 38,

pivot pin 42, its mounting and the spring 45 is used for purposes of appearance and decoration. It is to be understood that this manner or actuating the bell crank lever is one which is preferably used when the latch is concealed within the door, but that such structure for manually actuating latches in itself is not any essential part of the invention.

In Fig. 1 the door is shown in closed position with the roller 24 on the latch bolt engaging the keeper ledge 6 and with the spring 36 exerting its :force to move the rollers 29 into position within the flange sections l8 of the housing (Fig. 3). When the door is to be opened the bell crank lever 32 is rocked, as previously described, with a longitudinal movement imparted to the bar 26 and compression of spring 36. The rollers 29 traverse the inner portions of the flanges l8 until the bend at I! is reached whereupon through the camming of the shoe flanges 34 on rod 28 and a component of the force of spring 36, said rollers move around the bend at I and occupy the pockets provided by the sections it, bends l5 andadjacent flange portions l4 as in Fig. 3. In this position the force of the spring is exerted to press the rollers against the flanges 'I'B which are in an arc, the radius of which reaches from said flanges I6 to or near the center of the rod 20. The latch bolt is moved from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to that shown in Fig. 3 inasmuch as the rod 28 passing through the slots 25 in the sides of the latch bolt moves the bolt to such position.

. Roller 24 is disengaged from the keeper ledge t and the door may be readily opened and will be automatically opened as soon as such ledge disengagement occurs under the outward manual pull upon the handle 4|.

In closing the door the roller 24 carried by the latch bolt and with the latch bolt in its position shown in Fig. 3, strikes against the finger I and the door, moving inwardly toward closing position, causes the latch bolt to swing about the axis of the pin 24 with rollers traversing the flange sections ll of the housing from the full line position shown in Fig. 3 to approximately that shown in the first adjacent dotted line D081- tion and with the roller 24 moving relatively from the full line position shown in Fig. 3 to the first dotted line position there-adjacent. It is of course to be understood that the door is moving inwardly and the relative position of the roller 24 to the keeper finger I eventuallychanges in a bodily movement of said roller 24 to the left or toward the position to engage the ledge 6 of the keeper, the latch housing and all of the latch parts mounted thereon and the door moving inwardly toward door closing position. During this movement spring elongates to the position shown in Fig. 1 when the door is closed.

When the rollers 29 come to and pass around the cam bends at H, spring 34 is freed to move the bar 26 longitudinally to the left (Fig. 3), bearing against the inner positions of the curved flanges II with the roller 24 which has engaged against the ledge 4 rolling upon said ledge to the left by reason of the change of position of the latch bolt from its position of greatest tilting. approximately that shown in Fig. 3, to that shown in Fig. 1, and with the .roller 24 bearing against the inner side of said ledge with a pressure which pulls the door inwardly to its completely closed position as rollers 29 pass around the bends at l1 and move along the adjacent portions of flange sections it. when such position has been reached a positive deadlocked holding of the bolt is obtained and'the gasket at 2 is compressed with a creation of a tightly sealed cabinet.

With this operative construction the rolling movement of the roller 24 on the ledge 6 is relatively large in comparisonto the final closing movement of the door, and the reduction in pressure exerted by the spring 34 during the period when the door is immediately approaching its completely closed and sealed position is more than compensated for the relatively long distance through which it acts. The force of spring exerted through a leverage provided by the rollers 29 traversing the cam bends at I! and the adjacent flange portions i8 is such that the with this invention is in conjunction with those situations where accidentally or otherwise when the door is opened, or after it is opened. the

latch bolt is moved out of its cocked position, that is. from the extreme tilted position of the bolt shown in Fig. 3 to one corresponding to that shown in Fig. 1, but with the door open. Under such circumstances. on closing the. door,

roller 24 will strike against the opposite or outer with no danger of undue strain or breakage oi drawing in action of the bolt,'after the roller 24 sembly of the keeper in relation to the latch. in-

asmuch as it does not have to be secured within very close tolerances. w

A feature of additional value in connection parts or weakening of the fastenlngs used in securing either the keeper or the latch housing to their supports.

The latch construction consists of few parts substantially all readily manufactured from sheet metal, easily assembled and of a sturdy durable character. The simplicity of structure. the few parts, and the elimination largely of wear between the parts are of value in lengthening the life of service of the latch. The force required torelease the latch to open the door is small as the rollers 24 in their bearing against the flanges I. move in arcs concentric with the arcs of the surfaces against which they bear, resulting in no further compression of the heavy spring It and with a rolling friction eliminating engagement of the rollers against said flange section I until the bends at H are reached, whereupon the latch bolt is free to be actuated by said spring. Thus the operation of the latch is very easy and the pulling force necessarily exerted upon the handle 4! is comparable or less in comparison with latches for like purposes with which I am familiar.

The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. A latch structure comprising, a housing having spaced apart sides connected at one edge and adjacent one end by a cross member, the edges of said housing sides being continued therebeyond as straight inwardly extendingflanges for a distance and then curved and extending at an angle for a short distance toward the opposite edges of said sides and then reversely curved and extended therebeyondin the arc of a circle toward said opposite edges, and from the ends of said arcs extended to the opposite edges of said sides, a rod located between the sides of the housings near the first mentioned end thereof. a latch bolt formed of sheet metal having spaced apart sides connected at one edge by transverse means, said latch bolt being .pivotally mounted on said rod,

a roller carried at the free end of the latch bolt between the sides thereof. said latch bolt having slots in its sides toward the roller carrying end thereof. a bar having a longitudinal slot adjacent one end. said rod passing through said slot. whereby the bar is pivotally and slidably mounted on the housing. a cross pin passing through said bar at its opposite end and through the slots in the sides of the bolt, rollers mounted at the ends of said cross pin bearing against the flanges on said housing, and a coiled compression spring located around said bar bearing at one end against said rod, said bar adjacent its opposite end havspring bears.

2. A construction having the elements in combination defined in claim 1, a second rod extendotally mounted latch bolt. v

3. A latch structure comprising, a support having connected spaced apart sides, said sides each adjacent one end at one edge thereof being inturned to provide spaced flanges having short straight sections for a distance and then curved and extended toward the opposite edge thereof at an angle to the first sections of said flanges, then reversely curved and extended in an arc of a circle toward said opposite edge and from the end of said are extended to the opposite edge of each side, a latch bolt having spaced apart conthe force exerted by the spring means is decreased.

7. A manually operable refrigerator latch construction comprising, a pivotally mounted latch bolt having means at the free end thereof for engagement with a keeper, a support for said latch bolt, spring means acting on said latch bolt to normally retain it in its open or its closed position, means on which said spring means is mounted having a mounting for pivotal and slidable movement thereof about thesam'e axis as the latch bolt, rollers carried by said spring carrying means and guiding flanges on the support against which the rollers bear, combined with means for manually actuating said spring carrying means to cause the rollers to traverse said guiding flanges and move the latch bolt from its closed to its open position.

8. A trigger actuated latch comprising, a latch bolt pivotally mounted at one end, a support carrying the latch bolt, said latch bolt at its nected sides pivotally mounted on and located between the sides of the support adjacent the end thereof farthest away from said flanges, a roller carried at the free end of the latch bolt, said latch bolt having slots in its sides adjacent the roller carrying end thereof, a bar pivotally and slidably mounted upon the pivot on which the latch bolt is mounted, said bar being located between the sides of the latch bolt, a cross pin passing through the bar at its opposite end and through the slots in the sides of the bolt, rollers at the ends of said cross pin bearing against the flanges on said support, and spring means acting on said bar to normally move it in the direction toward the roller carrying end of the latch bolt.

4. A construction having the elements defined in claim 3 and manually operable means for engaging against said pin to move said bar longitudinally against the spring means acting thereon, said rollers moving from the inner sides of said flange sections curved in the are of a circle to the flange sections at the ends of the ,flrst mentioned curved portions therein, whereby the bar is tilted to a different position and the latch bolt is moved therewith.

5. In a latch structure, a support, a latch bolt pivotally mounted on said support at one end and having a roller at its opposite end, a spring actuated bar pivotally and slidably mounted to turn about the same pivotal axis as the latch bolt, connections between said latch bolt and bar, wherebyboth are simultaneously moved about said pivotal axis, spring means acting on said bar to nor-- mally move the bar longitudinally in the direction is in open position. and the force exerted by the spring means is increased, and in the other of which the bolt is in operative position andfree end having means to engage a keeper and also to engage a trigger adjacent said keeper in closing a door on which the latch is mounted, said keeper and trigger being adapted for mounting upon a door casing, a bar pivotally and slidably mounted adjacent one end upon the said pivot which carries the latch bolt, a pin ex tending transversely through the opposite end of said bar, said latch boltbeing slotted for the passage of said pin, rollers carried by said pin at opposed ends thereof, bearing and guiding flanges on said support against which the rollers bear, and a coiled compression spring bearing at one end against said pivot for the latch bolt, said bar adjacent its opposite end having shoulders against which the opposite end of the spring bears.

9. A construction having the elements defined in claim 8, and a bell crank lever pivotally mounted on said support having one arm thereof comprising spaced parallel members located one at each side of said bar at the end thereof at which said rollers are located, said members being provided with curved flanges bearing against said pin, the other arm of the bell crank lever extending at an angle to the first arm and having a ledge against which manual force may be applied toturn the bell crank lever and compress said spring and simultaneously longitudinally move the spring carrying. bar and tilt it about the pivot on which it is pivotally and *slidably mounted.

10. A latch structure comprising a body, a latch bolt pivotally mounted on said body and swingable into latching position, a spring, means connecting said spring to said latch bolt acting to swing the latch bolt into latching position as the spring expands, and means for guiding said connecting means including a cam shaped track on saidbody, and an element on said connecting means traversing said track.

LLOYD L. ANDERSON.

REFERENCES crrEn The following references are of record inthe file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,929,775 De Voe Oct. 10, 1933 2,181,493 Nave Nov. 28, 1939 2,342,250 Burke Feb. 22, 1944 2,347,467 Diemer Apr. 25, 1944' Disclaimer 2,440,162.Ll0yd L. Anderson, Grand Rapids, Mich. REFRIGERATION LATCH MECHANISM. Patent dated Apr. 20, 1948. Disclaimer filed Jan. 15, 1949, by the assignee, Winters ch Crampton Corporation. Hereby enters this disclaimer to claim 10 of said patent.

[Ofiioial Gazette February 22, 1949.] 

